Kegeratoring and Arrogant Bastard

Coming to you LIVE. Blogging as I drink.

I have been working on making a kegerator and had gone as far as pricing and sizing equipment before I went back offshore. But true to form of an oil guy, I opted for the mergers and acquisitions rather than building up from scratch. I found a fully constructed kegerator (made out of a GE 7 cf freezer) on craigslist for a good price and I just picked it up today. Things were going pretty well until I noticed that the top of the draft tower was missing, so I could not plug in the kegerator to get it cool.

I took another corny keg I bought as well and cleaned out and sanitized the lines. I was good to go and feeling good that I actually got liquid to come out of the tap handle. I tried to the quick disconnect on the keg of IPA I brewed what is now over a month ago. I was so fired up about finally getting at this beer, I did not vent the sonofabitch before hooking up the CO2. Just like real Acquisitions, the buyer is trying to move too fast and doesn't know how to handle their new assets, and the seller is unloading their stuff as they have something better in the hopper.

Forthwith, a flowery hop aroma liquid went flying out of the CO2 regulator and onto my workout equipment and garage floor. Once the pressure equilibrated, I was able to muscle the quick disconnect off the keg. After some cursing, I tried to rehook up the beer and CO2 lines. Turns out the quick disconnects are slightly UNDERSIZED for my IPA keg. But they work great for the kegs the guy sold me with the kegerator. Ain't that a bitch! So now I'm without my IPA again until I get the right disconnects. The guy who sold me the kegerator is cool, so I'll call him tomorrow after work to ask his advice on the whole ordeal, and that durn top.

I go ahead and keg the American Pale Ale that has been sitting in my fermentar for 9 days. The Final Gravity is at 1010 (OG 1050), so I'm good there. I decide to juice this one with force carbonation, pumping CO2 into the liquid rather than waiting 2 weeks with priming sugar. It seems to be working out well and I tried a couple sips. The shit is just plain harsh with hops. Dammit something must have gone wrong! I go ahead and force carbo it up to 12 psi and put it in the bigger freezer that was to be my original kegerator with a temperature control of 38 degrees.

I got IPA all on my garage floor that I had to mop up, beer on my shirt, and I'm tired of dealing with it all right now. Getting the kegerator today was a 4 hour trip with a stop at my cousins house to drop off the tickets and driving my convertible in the rain with the top down. So currently I'm going to watch some MFers work on the olympics while trying out Arrogant Bastard Ale from the Stone boys. The 12 year old Chinese girl just did a nice floor exercise but Bob Costas told me I was supposed to be watching smoking hot Jamaican track running women. I was about to turn on a DVR of ShoXC mixed martial arts but a slap-yo-momma fine sista from Brazil is doing floor exercise. Excuse me.



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(For those that are not aware, a "slap-yo-momma fine" woman is a female that is so fine, you would slap your own mother if it meant a night with her. Not saying I would slap my mother, but I would give it some thought). The poor woman stepped out of bounds a couple times, and even I could see some of the other errors. Her score may be around 13. She seems in good spirits as she walks off the stage, but I want to let her know that she can call me if she needs any consoling. Don's here for you baby.

Arrogant Bastard Ale
This one had all kinds of hype coming from the beer world, so I picked up a bottle of this one while we were shopping for ingredients for some beer queso. It's come in a 22 ounce bottle and today I've only used 21 points out of my 37 for weight watchers. I estimate this bottle is a good 10 points (equivalent to a nice size deli sandwich with some rice). I was under the impression that this beer was a double IPA. I'll check that later, but I pour it and it gets a very strong tan head that actually goes over my dimpled pint glass as I poured too quick, that never happens baby I swear. It's dark red in the light and dark brown in the normal gloom of Houston nights. Light hop bite on the nose. Head is serious and the head retention is even more serious, so I had to wait about 10 minutes for this creamy head to relax. I finally taste it and I notice a nice maltiness and a little grittiness on my tongue. Medium hops and low carbonation, and I'm having just a touch of trouble getting it down the pipe. I'll say this is actually kind of Barley Wineish. I like the Stone IPA better (glad I got another bottle of that as well). As it warms up a bit it is more balanced and citrusy, like grapefruit. The finish is very quick and the aftertaste is a pleasant bitterness. The drinkability is a lot better when some of that carbonation got out of the way. A 3 Star beer for sure. A nice end to the day.

The cutie from Jamrock won the 100 meters. Good for her. I'm going to knock back the rest of the AB and call it a night.